Because they weren't private messages. Private messages are between two parties. Instead, these were messages on a platform which is owned by Twitter between tw

Because they weren't private messages. Private messages are between two parties. Instead, these were messages on a platform which is owned by Twitter between two users where these users have agreed to restrictions. You can read about those restrictions here: https://twitter.com/en/tos https://twitter.com/en/tos HN is no different. I know this because I've been dinged by dang.